In a nutshell: over the past few months, the oversupply of NAND flash memory, which has caused the current hangover of the tech industry after the boom, has sharply reduced the prices of solid-state drives. According to the latest analysis, this trend will continue at least a little longer and possibly until the end of the year, although it may level off as suppliers try to control inventories.
The latest TrendForce report on NAND flash memory shows that the cost of solid-state drives will decrease by another five to ten percent in the second quarter of 2023. If consumer demand stabilizes, prices may recover around the fourth quarter. However, falling demand may delay the recovery.
Since solid-state drive prices dropped by about 30 percent in the first quarter of this year, many consumers were probably waiting to see how low they could fall. If you need to get it now, it’s probably not a bad investment, but those who can wait should double-check prices in the summer.
Prices for models whose prices have dropped significantly recently, such as the 1TB WD Black SN770 NVMe solid-state drive or the Samsung 870 Evo SATA drive, have stabilized since TechSpot’s last check earlier this month. The SN770 still costs $60, up from $90 at the start of the year, and the 870 Evo still costs $65.
In addition, faster and more expensive models that have not changed all year may begin to decline. Samsung 990 Pro with a volume of 1 TB at the beginning of the month cost $ 170, and now it costs $ 120. The WD Black NS850X, which TechSpot called the best high-performance solid-state drive at the beginning of 2023, remained at $100, but, according to PCPartPicker tracking, may also fall.
Prices for flash memory plates are likely to fall back to the previous level soon, but it is not yet clear when this change will affect end consumers. Like many tech products, NAND memory has experienced a drop in demand due to the economic slowdown over the past year. The pace and duration of the current price trend will depend on the ability of suppliers to reduce production appropriately.
In addition, TrendForce predicts that enterprise solid—state drive prices could fall by 8-13 percent in the second quarter – more than consumer solid-state drives, but still slower than their 13-18 percent drop in the first quarter. Prices for mobile storage in the second quarter may also decrease, as well as for solid-state drives.
